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Every day musical instruments enrich the lives of people around the world and continue to promote culture and art throughout every society and community, no matter what size or structure. Even those people of the world who live outside the realm of technology enjoy and use musical instruments to tell stories or entertain. Someone who has never played musical instruments but is interested in trying one has quite a selection to choose from

Playing the violin is a wonderful experience and relatively easy to learn if you take it step by step. Firstly however you need to understand the mechanics of the violin so you know where to put your fingers and why.

The main components of the violin are the front, also called the belly, top, or soundboard, usually made of well-seasoned spruce; the back, usually made of well-seasoned maple; and the ribs, neck, fingerboard, pegbox, scroll, bridge, tailpiece, and f-holes, or soundholes. The front, back, and ribs are joined together to form a hollow sound box. The sound box contains the sound post, a thin, dowel-like stick of wood wedged inside underneath the right side of the bridge and connecting the front and back of the violin; and the bass-bar, a long strip of wood glued to the inside of the front under the left side of the bridge. The sound post and bass-bar are important for the transmission of sound, and they also give additional support to the construction. The strings are fastened to the tailpiece, rest on the bridge, are suspended over the fingerboard, and run to the pegbox, where they are attached to tuning pegs that can be turned to change the pitch of the string.

A violinist makes different pitches by placing the left-hand fingers on the string and pressing against the fingerboard. The strings are set in vibration and produce sound when the player draws the bow across them at a right angle near the bridge.

Among the most decorated characteristics of the violin are its singing tone and its potential to play rapid, brilliant figurations as well as lyrical melodies. Violinists can easily create special effects by means of the following techniques: pizzicato, plucking the strings; tremolo, moving the bow rapidly back and forth on a string; sul ponticello, playing with the bow extremely close to the bridge to produce a thin, glassy sound; col legno, playing with the wooden part of the bow instead of with the hair; harmonics, placing the fingers of the left hand lightly on certain points of the string to obtain a light, flutelike sound; and glissando, steadily gliding the left-hand fingers up and down along the string to produce an upward- or downward-sliding pitch.

Among composers of major solo and chamber works for the violin are Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven in the baroque and classical eras; the Austrian Franz Schubert, the Germans Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann, and the Russian Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in the romantic era; and the French Claude Debussy, the Austrian Arnold Schoenberg, the Hungarian B

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The multiple award-winning musical Rent is based on opera of Puccini, La Boheme. It has been playing on Broadway since 1996 and is one of the longest running shows. In 2005, the movie based on Rent was released and, like the musical itself, has gained a cult following. The soundtrack album became available on CD soon after.

The story follows a group of eight Bohemian friends living in modern New York over the course of a year, specifically 1989-1990. It is a heartfelt look at ups and downs of life and how the various characters deal with addiction, loss, relationships, housing, AIDS and the meaning of life itself.

A number of the original songs were deleted during the movie adaptation and do not appear on the movie soundtrack in order to create more space for dialogue and produce a more free-flowing plot. Some purists or Rentheads feel that the soundtrack is not complete because of the removal of these songs. For everyone else, especially those who have not seen the Broadway version, the movie is a brutally honest look at life with aspects that most can relate to. The Rent movie soundtrack has the same rock opera feel to it as the original musical score and is filled with 28 moving, uplifting and ultimately, inspiring songs.

Seasons of Love is perhaps the best known of all of the songs. Unlike in the musical, this song opens the movie. A re-mixed version, featuring the legendary Stevie Wonder, was also released. The entire cast sings and the song revolves around them trying to decide how you measure a year apart from in minutes. They calculate that there are five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes in a year and each suggests other methods of quantifying a year but reach the conclusion that love is the one correct gauge of a year in a life of a human. Seasons of Love is the perfect opening and acts as a teaser to the rest of the tracks on this compilation .

The original theme song of the musical, Rent, follows as the film opens in the East Village of New York on Christmas Eve, 1989. Roger and Mark are trying to avoid being evicted from their previously rent-free apartment. Another outstanding song on the Rent movie soundtrack is the duet Take Me or Leave Me where Maureen and her lesbian lover Joanne are having a quarrel at an engagement announcement party hosted by the parents of Joanne. The local bar is the perfect setting for the energetic rendition of La Vie Boheme. It captures the nonconformity of the main characters, which is further emphasized by everyone dancing on the tables.

The Rent movie soundtrack is a must-have for anyone who has seen the movie. Fans of the original musical will also enjoy reliving the songs, particularly because the majority of the original cast members were involved in the film and also appear on the movie soundtrack.

For more information as well as other soundtrack reviews please visit my blog at Rent Movie Soundtrack

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It’s tempting to just say this film is a great pick for Jack Black and Tenacious D fans and leave it at that. But “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny” is so much more. It’s an hour and a half of creative special effects, outrageous fantasy and dream sequences, hard-rocking music, pop culture references, low-brow humor, guest appearances, and extreme close-ups combined to reveal the origin of the band Tenacious D.

Part music video, part comedy, the story begins with a young JB (Jack Black) belting out the profane lyrics to “Kickapoo,” (a song written specifically for the movie) while his ultra-conservative family tries to eat dinner. After a lecture, a beating, and the removal of his prized rock star posters, ten-year-old JB leaves for Hollywood to pursue his dream of becoming a rock singer. After a circuitous route, he finally arrives years later at his destination and meets poser KG (Kyle Gass) playing his guitar for spare change on Venice Beach.

The two hook up to work on The Kyle Gass Project, what KG promises will be the best rock band on earth. In their quest for fame — which includes a big win at a talent show in a dive bar — they decide to steal a magical green guitar pick housed in the Rock and Roll History Museum. Along the way, they take lots of mind-altering drugs, watch television, indulge their fantasies, and solicit the help of star-struck Lee (JR Reed), a clingy pizza delivery man with a serviceable car, but no discernible backbone, and must fight off a mysterious stranger (Tim Robbins) who also has plans for The Pick of Destiny.

In addition to Robbins, other notable stars make brief appearances including Ben Stiller (who also served as an executive producer), singer Meat Loaf, and Fred Armisen and Amy Poehler, both of “Saturday Night Live.” The film is a New Line Cinema presentation of a Red Hour Films Production written by Black, Gass, and Liam Lynch, who also directed. Raunchy, irreverent, and relentlessly funny, “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny” is destined to delight Jack Black fans in the theater and attract new devotees once the film hits DVD.

Copyright 2006 Leslie Halpern

For more movie reviews visit: http://home.cfl.rr.com/lesliehalpern/leslie_halpern.htm
Central Florida entertainment writer Leslie Halpern wrote the books “Dreams on Film: The Cinematic Struggle Between Art and Science” (McFarland & Company), an analysis of representations of sleeping and dreaming in more than 125 movies and “Reel Romance. The Lovers’ Guide to the 100 Best Date Movies” (Taylor Trade Publishing), which reviews date movies and suggests romantic ideas inspired by these films. Both books are available at http://www.Amazon.com and http://www.Barnesandnoble.com

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